HEY ! I can see the road through the floor !!!

[Heli-Land]

Bad days for my '94 Disco !

When removind the rear seats to make an utility truck of her, I had the cold feeling of seeing the road through the floor !!

Yes, you guessed : the everlasting cargo floor problem of the early Disco's !

Now, that you all have shared my pain, the question : how much worktime is it to replace the floor ? (I don't wanna be stolen by some land-hating garage !). I know the part by itself is not expensive (116 Euros + VAT, genuine from LandRover). But how many labour hours would you think reasonable ?

Any link with pictures or personal experience about the matter is more than welcome ! (And, in exchange, I'll post picture on "how to remove and replace the matrix heater core on a 300 Tdi :-) )

[Disco Mike]

Yes, you have a problem, but as the enclosed picture will prove, it could be worse.
On your problem, I would suggest you strip as much off the floor as you can and find yourself a good sheet metal,welder type person and have him make you some new floor panels. This would be alot cheaper then jerking around with a Rover shop.
Just a thought.
Good luck,
Mike J.

[Heli-Land]

Hmm, good idea to go for a single metal plate instead of the LR floor.
Howevr, my question was : how many labour hours do you think necessary to dismount petrol tank and all the stuff around, weld a new plate, and remount all the junk ? (Sorry if my first question was not very clear, English is not my mothertongue as you will have guessed ..)

[Disco Mike]

I wish I could tell you how many hours, but when working with alot of rust, it is hard to estimate the labor.
Good luck,
Mike J.

[Bene]

i9m surprised at the lack of bullet holes in that RRC... it must have not been there long.

[OkieRover]

You mean to tell me you're NOT supposed to be able to escape out the bottom. I thought that was a poorly designed escape hatch.

Really though that sucks dude. Getting all the rust out is a challenge.
If you are going the "work truck" route. I would suggest you strip her and have her coated. Well that is after you get the rust situation in hand.

[pavel]

Heli-Land: have you had a look at the underside of the floor panel? Is it completely rust out or are there just a few areas that have holes? On several "work trucks" that I have repaired, it was much cheaper to patch over the rusty holes with sheet metal (welded in or pop-rivetted in) and then spray on some undercoat emulsion that you can buy in spray-can form. Of course, you can do a proper job and replace the entire panel, but is the truck worth it? Also, there are products available in Canada called "Blue steel" or "Por15" that are wonderful at stopping rust - you just brush them on the panels and they slow/stop the rust. Good luck!

[texasrover]

Absolutely!!!

If we are talking about a few localized spots of rust.... strip, completley, cut away and tack or spot weld a make shift replacement, grind down to smooth and coat and recoat with a good primer and undercoating... top and bottom.

I would not really want to replace the whole floor unless it is trashed or completely eaten up with rust to the point of structural loss.

Best of luck.

Keep in mind, if you find some rust... keep looking. Better to deal with what you can now than wait. Rust only gets worse with time.